Characterization of scatterers for an active focal plane Compton polarimeter

In this work we present an active Compton scattering polarimeter as a focal plane instrument able to extend the X-ray polarimetry towards hard X-rays. Other authors have already studied various instrument design by means of Monte Carlo simulations, in this work we will show for the first time the experimental measurements of "tagging efficiency" aimed to evaluate the polarimeter sensitivity as a function of energy. We performed a characterization of different scattering materials by measuring the tagging efficiency that was used as an input to the Monte Carlo simulation. Then we calculated the sensitivity to polarization of a design based on the laboratory setup. Despite the geometry tested is not optimized for a realistic focal plane instrument, we demonstrated the feasibility of polarimetry with a low energy threshold of 20 key. Moreover we evaluated a minimum detectable polarization of 10% for a 10 mCrab source in 100 ks. between 20 and 80 keV in the focal plane of one multilayer optics module of NuSTAR. The configuration used consisted of a doped p-terphenyl scatterer 3 cm long and 0.7 cm of diameter coupled with a 0.2 cm thick LaBr3 absorber. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.